Ephesus and House of Virgin Mary Day Trip from Bodrum

This tour was JUST BAD. Where to begin? The literal NAME of the tour is "Ephesus and house of Virgin Mary". Well, little did we know that they were not even gonna take us to the house of the Virgin Mary, which is half the reason we booked this tour. In the tour description, which I attach for transparecy, it clearly states that we are going to the sanctuary, although entrance is optional (10 euros). Well, when time for the virgin Mary's house came, they asked us for 25 (25 !!) extra euros, only paid in cash (convenient), otherwise we could go out of the bus in a random avenue intersection in Selcuk. Since I had no euros with me, I asked the tour if I could just go with them and pay the entrance fee (which is way less than 25) on the sanctuary, and he literally told me "You can go in a taxi". So we didn't go. Besides the fact that they didn't takes us to half of the tour, there were some other events that made the trip just uncomfortable. First, we stopped in so many stores along the way for us to buy jewelry, Turkish candies, and tourist souvenirs, which I am not against, but those activities were not listed on the description of the tour, and for which we spend solid one hour, one hour and a half. Second, they literally drop us off in a random intersection of Selcuk to all those that couldn't or wouldn't pay the extra 25 bucks, they just told us,"meet in one hour here". Third, the guides were borderline rude, for example, I already mentioned the "you can go in a taxi" bit, but also at some rest stop, one sat on my bus seat and told me to find another spot on the bus (which was almost full) just because she wanted to sit on her own. Lastly, when we got back to Bodrum, they stopped the bus on a random highway intersection (in the middle of nowehere, with no shelter, no nothing, in the middle of the June sun) and told us to get off the bus, and that a van would come pick us up, and they ALL LEFT us there with no other word, they just abandoned us. The van took solid 20 minutes to arrive. That is it. I will be looking to get my money back. This tour was just sad

the guide Sveta ( Russian) was amazing, perfectly knowing history and important details. Overall excursion was long.

The city of Efes is wonderful. We had an amazing guide, that was well prepared and very nice, and the trip was very well organized. A great way to spend the day.

The tour was great and insightful. I encountered an issue and the guides were readily available to help. Needless to say they were friendly and so were the people on the tour. Although I was travelling alone it didn’t feel like it.

Took this trip yesterday, worth every penny, such and amazing place and great tour guide Giray, would recommend this trip